Do-gooder Is Not a Positive Term

Do-gooder Is Not a Positive Term Do-gooder Is Not a Positive Term Do-gooder Is Not a Positive Term By Maeve Maddox A reader questions the positive use of the epithet do-gooder: One use of the language that disturbs me is the use by my local paper of the term â€Å"Do-gooder† [to refer] to people who are indeed doing good deeds by helping or contributing.  However the only definitions I have seen for the term appear to refer to those who are trying to do good, but do so in unrealistic or wrong means. I feel the current use is not considering the older, perhaps archaic, usage. The OED does list one example of the noun Do-Good to mean â€Å"a person who does good,† but the only citation given is dated 1654 and the usage is labeled obsolete. In subsequent usage, the nouns do-good and do-gooder have not been intended as compliments. These OED examples from the 1920s reflect the pejorative usage: 1923 There is nothing the matter with the United States exceptthe parlor socialists, up-lifters, and do-goods. 1925   He could not stand them- no decently constituted American can- nor the uplifters and do-gooders who rule us to-day. The Web offers numerous examples of do-gooder in headlines that introduce stories that make it clear that the term is meant in a positive sense: Ebola-stricken doc described as driven do-gooder Africa [has become] the hottest continent for A-list do-gooders like Bono and Brangelina. Salvation Army honors Mon Valley do-gooders Brooklyn Do Gooder Awards to honor community service The misuse of do-gooder to mean â€Å"one who does genuine good† may have gone too far to reverse. If that’s the case, it’s unfortunate. We need a word that describes a person who acts according to his own idea of what doing good is without considering the consequences that might affect the recipients of the supposed good. For example, a corporation or celebrity might think that giving free shoes and free shirts to every person in a poor village is an excellent way to do good, whereas in reality the act would create worse poverty for the village cobblers, weavers, tailors, and seamstresses. English has other words to describe a person who tries to improve the lives of others. Philanthropist is an obvious choice, but many speakers might share the difficulty of the Wizard of Oz when he tries to use the word: Back where I come from there are men who do nothing all day but good deeds. They are called philaer, philaer, yes, er, Good Deed Doers. Ruling out philanthropist as too difficult to pronounce, we still have benefactor, humanitarian, altruist, and social reformer. And, perhaps, â€Å"Good Deed Doer.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:70 Idioms with Heart7 Tips for Writing a Film ReviewHow Verbs Become Adjectives

How to Write a Response Essay to an Article

How to Write a Response Essay to an Article How to Write a Response Essay to an Article Essays are mainly done in schools. They begin in the junior schools. Per level of education, different essays are done from the simplest to the complex ones depending on the level that one is in. Different essays are written for different reasons or are normally given under different instructions. Some of them are merely about creative writing while in others one has to do a research. This is where one does a research then after that they draft the essay depending on the research that they came up with. There are other essays that are done however. Essays that tend to respond to a certain article. The teacher gives the students an article then they are asked to answer the question asked in the article in an essay form. Such essays are response essays. The students will just read the article and they will answer according to how they feel mostly it is written in first person. Some of the students are not familiar to the essays so the teachers have to teach the students even if in college how to write a response essay to an article. The teachers mainly insist on the first part of the introduction that the students should read the article and understand it. They should read it at first for the first understanding. This is because this is where their response will be based. They will answer the question depending on how they will understand the article. The second thing that they should do is that they should now read the article thoroughly. Therefore to ensure that they understand the article and they will give the right response, they should read the article a number of times. As they read the article they should be able to make some notes that will help them in their response. They should be able to get some impressions as they tread the article and they should be able to put them in a way that they will help them in their response. Write as many points as you can depending on the impressions that you will get. Then after that, write an outline of those impressions. This will help you know whether you have the right impression or not. After writing the outlines then explain them on the basis of the article that you have. This way you will have the evidence that supports your work. After you have all this work then go ahead and draft your response essay. Whatever you will write then is the best that you could have therefore do not feel ashamed of what you have written. After the writing now you can submit the response. At writing company you can get professional response essay writing help from experts. Custom response essays written from scratch!